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Long DYM session again.
As is fast becoming the norm, lost the first 4 and was around 50 down before eventually winning 7 out of last 8 to return small profit.
Think the 10's are becoming a bit tougher.
Still some let's say interesting play. Highlight being 3 limps to my bb at 100/200! I shove ak for 1650 and get snapped by first limper with j5! Didn't win that game.
Also Happy Birthday me on Thursday.
Hoping SKY might chuck me a load of money as they did with Dev!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL...for Thursday
hope you have a great day mate...
come on SKY..do your dealing...
he's a very nice man you know!!!
there,done my bit Paul. lol
(* *)
^
dev
Hi J
A very good point m8 well made sir! You were lucky, i had a racist and a drunk9two people) on my table in a dym who called my 10 BB ai of TT fron sb with q8 o with a bigger stack. It does spoil a game and puts me off......for about ten seconds before signing up again. Ha
meanwhile happy birthday to Jac, and if Sky doesn't give you the cash you'll just have to win it!
Wasn't going to play today as didn't want to lose on my birthday.
But i did play and i did lose on my birthday. Grrrrr
Down 70 at moment with just one 10 dym still going.
Edit: no games running 70 down
Morning Jac.
On last night's TV Show, you were awarded a little birthday pressie - a Santa's Grotto Freeroll Seat.
https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby/poker-promotions/santas-grotto
Congratulations!
I hit absolutely everything in first hour but then went card dead until the break.
I was umming and ahhing ( does that work? ) about adding on and i'm sure all advice would be to 100% do this but for some reason i'm always reluctant.
Glad i didn't as i went out frist hand after the break and the action would have been just the same and he had me covered.
Had JJ and J high board was pleasant. Villain shoved turn, i snapped, he won. Bit of a gross 2nd pair turning flush draw and getting there.
Got chatting to a DTD 'superstar' Wadey who i hadn't seen in there before and he was good to talk to. He plays very differently to most players but does extremely well at the game. He was saying that everything he does is gut feeling and will literally play any 2 when he's feeling it because he knows he will win.
As one of the first out there was no cash game running at that stage. To pass time and because i'v always been interested i got the waiting cash game dealer to give me a brief explanation of the dealers choice games. Wow! I occasionaly play omaha was ok with high/low but the others? Well, i definately require more lessons before i go anywhere near a dc table with money in my pocket. Seems a bit ridiculous that after all these years i've not learned these games but i am pretty lazy.
We eventually started and everyone was sitting really short so i sat with £70 which was the same as next biggest stack.
Shame that after hand one i was sitting with nothing! Pesky JJ again, flopped set again, didn't win again, ouch!
Went to ATM and and drew £200 which cost me £201.75. Always annoys me that some of these places put a charge on withdrawals and prey on lazy fools like me who can't be bothered to go out and draw from somewhere else.
Long, long session where i did ok and got lucky at the right times. Flopped ace high flush against King high flush which also had a straight flush redraw. Obviously all the money went in and i faded the straight flush. One of the biggest pots i've won this year and i said sorry to opponent which i never normally would do because i wouldn't mean it. But this chap had been sat next to me for a long time and we had been chatting away. He was a really nice guy and although i obviously wanted to win the pot i would much rather it had been against someone else. Also, he plays on SKY.
I'm generally not a big drinker but recently i have been drinking far too much when i've been to casino.
This probably sounds a bit soft but i hate it the following day when i really worry that i may have upset people. I'm very chatty always but i'm sure i overdo it when drunk. No one as far as i can recall seemed annoyed and i got a few light hearted comments about being a drunk. i am aware though that while for a spell the table drunk can be amusing it can wear very thin after a few hours.
So, i'm driving next time and will walk in sheepishly as usual and hope i don't get told about anything too embarrassing that i did. Won't be going there next week anyway as i've kindly been put into the freeroll by SKY.
Went to a family meal yesterday. 11 year old neice explained that her boyfriend had told her he had bought her some chocolate for Christmas. She said that she had no idea what to get him and was considering just wrapping herself up and letting him unwrap her! Awkward looks all round.
Good luck everyone
Paul
Join the table 4 hands before end of re-entry period. Get greeted warmly by entire table and shyly take you seat.
Hand 1
Announce 'raise it' and go 8xbb. Obviously as you're Ali you pick up 2 callers. Check call each street and show QQ on K high board and it's good, Nice pot.
Hand 2
Limp and then call a big raise. Hit top pair on turn and collect flush draw. Pot gets raised and then when it comes to you say 'All in'. Obviously as you're Ali you hit flush and beat the opponents flopped 2 pair. Very nice pot.
Hand 3
Have a rest.
Hand 4
Limp. Call raise. When oppenent says all in on river say 'call that' and win with another flush.
Now sat with around 50000 say 'i think i add on now and be chip leader'. Smile pleasantly at rest of table and stroll off at the break.
Don't know how he did for rest of the tourney as i was rather rudely asked to leave the table when i lost all my chips.
However as people came to join the cash table they would get asked 'what happened?' to which they would reply 'Ali happened'.
Lovely guy.
Memories came flooding back. Best England team i've ever seen. I'd forgotten just how much abuse Bobby Robson got as England manager and was also amused to hear the press bemoaning the lack of creative players in the team.
Midfield of Waddle, Gascoigne, Platt and Barnes. Up front Lineker and Beardsley and we were lacking creation?
Anyone of those would walk into the present team.
The game against Ireland was ranked the World Cups worst ever game but then we started.
Holland were next and they had thrashed us in the Euro's 2 years earlier. I remember racing my paper round and getting back home just in time for the kick off.
Matthaus for Germany was brilliant but if we had actually gone on to win the cup i think Gascoigne would have been player of the tournament and rated the best player in the world.
We drew with the Dutch and the Mighty Rams Mark Wright put us through to the knockout stages with the winner against Egypt.
Fantastic game against a really good Belgium team with a stunning winner from Platt in injury time.
Nerve racking game against Cameroon which we just came through and then, Germany.
We were fantastic that night, our best performance by far, but then it went to penalties.
Our first in a long line of penalty shoot out losses. I cried.
I thought, at 15, that fur years time maybe i could be the next Gascoigne and help England win the World Cup. In truth though, i had sadly already peaked!
The winner for Derby Boys against Borussa Monchengladbach in Osnabruck at 10 years old was the highlight of my career
He is supposed to be in rehab down here in Bournemouth but just a couple of days ago my wifes work mate found him slumped on the pavement , drunk and covered in blood.
Such a wasted talent :-(
I was reading the other day on another forum about a dealers choice hand at DTD.
2 of the players in the pot were guys who were playing £30 freezeouts with me back in the day. The pot also involved a very prominent forum member on here. they got it all in preflop for £11000!
Now one of these players is a very successful businessman, so fair play. The other was just like me a few years ago. Someone just getting into poker. The big difference between us though was he was a gambler. Was he any better than me at the time? probably not. Is he now? undoubtably.
How do players get to this stage? Obviously binking something big after satting in is the stress free option.
More likely though, rather than turn over an ok profit at small stakes like me and staying there he moved up.
I've always treated poker as a game to enjoy and hopefully make a few quid from. However, i do often wonder if i had had enough 'gamble' in me could i have done more?
Not sure. Right now i can't even comprehend the idea of getting in £5000 in a cash game but it's all relative i guess.
A friend of mine has starting playing recently on here 30p dym's. When i told him i lost a £550 pot a few days ago he said that he wouldn't be able to sleep for a month.
Due to a decent year, while it obviously stung a bit, i could take it and i guess it's the same for the guy with 5000 in the middle, different bankrolls.
We all have varying levels at which we are prepared to gamble i think.
For some on here i see that they've deposited a certain amount and don't wish to redeposit again and stick strictly to their bankrolls. Others reload on a regular basis and 'take a shot'.
I don't think there is a right or wrong, we are all just built differently.
.
Morning Jac.
BOTH of the players in that £11,000 hand have a lot of "gamble" in them........
Both began playing at the same venue - Gala Notts - & same time as me.
One of them has been busto plenty of times, the other runs a very successful business.
If you are a nit, my advice would be that if you end up on the same table as them, make sure you sit to their left.
Then just use hand-selection, pot-control, patience & discipline VERY carefully, & it'll be just fine.
I have loved your "ramblings" this year, keep them coming please.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas
I have just looked back and i got a couple of hands mixed up, age thing i guess.
1st pot was actually £10000 i believe and the other hand involved our member.
I remember being heads up with Richard Berridge one night and he had a good sized chip lead.
Was a little surprised when he said i could take 1st place money as long as he was given 1st for the leaderboard.
They were doing a promotion at the time and he said the money didn't matter to him. Must be nice.
The other player as you say has been broke a few times. I guess we all have different responsibilties. Going broke wouldn't be an option for me.
It's funny, we must have started playing at similar times and yet, i don't believe i have ever actually sat at table with you.
I do remember 'Chipie?' telling me one night about how he had got heads up with you and you LIMPED into his big blind. He shoved and you had the ACES.
Did you ever play the Sunday night £100 rebuy they had? Seems crazy now, £100 rebuy with 2000 starting stack.
Morning Jac.
I sometimes wish you'd stop telling these tales! It brings back so many memories for me, especially of all the lovely friends I have made through poker, & these friendships last forever.
Yes, I remember Chippie, I still see him from time to time, & I bumped into him last week in Nottingham, he even fetched me a latte.
The "incident" with the Aces must have been 10 years ago, but he still reminds me of it to this day every time I see him, lol. When it happened, he was a bit cross with me, "you trapped me" (!!), & in those days, Gala Notts was full of "same village" softplay, so I think he expected me to go easy on him. He is a good lad though, he apologised for his outburst the next day, & we've never had a cross word since.
That Sunday Night £100 rebuy was something else.
The cardroom - a very nice cardroom, totally self-enclosed - was great, though in those days, people could smoke indoors, & our eyes used to stream from the smoke.
That Monthly £100 rebuy used to get as many as 130 runners. The structure, by present day standards, was horrific, 2,000 chips & a 30 minute clock, but it was what we were used to then, these days players have SUCH better Tournament structures.
Much of that was down to APAT, & I'm very proud of what we achieved in APAT for smaller buy-in players. I recently resigned my position as APAT Chairman, due to a commercial conflict of interest with their new partner, Matt Dale, who has helped them open an Online Cardroom, so because of my position with Sky, I felt it best that I resigned. Shame really, but for purposes of transparency it was the right thing to do. When my tenure here ends, I shall return to work with APAT, for sure.
The first time I ever played that £100 rebuy (I know, I'm boring folks now, but I blame you), arose because I had won two £10 or £20 Freezeouts in that Cardroom in Colyer Street Derby.
The mere thought of paying £100 to play a poker tournament blew me away. I mean, one hundred pounds!
I kept thinking, if my Dad were alive, he's think I'd lost the plot. He'd probably have given me a good hiding, too.
Anyway, I coughed up the £100, ran like Mo Farah, (I was a nit even then, but the tortoise very often beats the hare), & somehow luckboxed my way to the Final Table. I mean, this was like, "Wow"! to me then - there was about £4,000 to the winner, I could barely believe it was happening.
I still know 5 or 6 of the players from that first £100 Final, more on which shortly.
Anyway, 6 handed, a deal is proposed, "business". An offer of £900 each or whatever was made by a Sheffield lad named (xxx) who was as bent as a nine bob note, though of course I never knew that at the time. £900. NINE HUNDRED POUNDS. My eyes glazed over, imagine winning £900 in a Poker Tourney, never been so excited in my life!
I readily agreed, as did most others. Yum yum yum, £900.
And then, at that very moment, an almost life-changing thing happened.........
......there was a kid sat at the other end of the Final Table, I sort of knew him vaguely, but never knew his name, we'd shared Tables most of the Tourney though.
"Tony - it is Tony, right?" he says.
Yeah yeah.
"You are getting a really bad deal there mate".
I am?
"Sure you are. It's up to you, but if I were you, I'd ask for £1,300".
Why?
"Because your chip equity is MUCH better than £900. You'd be better to play on if you are only offered £900".
My chip WHAT? I mean, what is THAT for goodness sake?
Anyway, he looked a decent sort, he smiled easily, & made good eye-contact, & I sort of thought "he seems honest & straight, I'll do what he says".
So I refused the deal, we played on for a bit, & I eventually ended up getting £1,600. Top bloke that kid, eh?
His name was Julian Thew.
So, Thewy & I became mates, & travelled Europe playing the poker. There was another lad too, Ian Oldershaw, "Belly" was his nick, & the 3 of us went everywhere together, & we all swapped 10% every Tourney.
I genuinely thought I was the best player of the trio. Amazing how we become deluded, eh?
Thewy started playing bigger Tourneys, & I started backing him, buying as much as 50% of him in big events.
He was well-lairy back then, with no gears, & he regularly amassed huge stacks then spewed them off just short of the Final. He made the Final of an EPT at The Vic as Chip Leader, & finished 9th, after John Duthie bust him in two consecutive hands. Both hands were identical - A-K v 10-10, Thewy had the A-K the first time, & Tens the next, & lost both flips. Ugh.
The three of us went to Amsterdam every year for the Master Classics. The big event was way too big for me, & anyway, I had to travel back home before it began, as I was still working at the time.
Thewy luckboxed a Super Satelite, so he was in the biggie.
Belly (Ian Oldershaw) was desperate to play the Biggie too, but had done all his dough in three Super Sats.
Anyway.....we sat in the cardroom cafe, supping cofee & chewing the cud, & Belly says "any chance you lads can buy a bit of my action, I'd love to play the Main?".
I can remember the scene as if it were yesterday, & Thewy will confirm it.
We all emptied our pockets of cash, & plonked the lot on the Table. "That's all we have Ian, but you are welcome to it".
After what seemed an age, of counting & re-counting the lolly, Ian says he has enough now, & will play the Main. Good lad.
We go back to our hotel, just across the road, it was a little B & B called "The Owl", with a lift the size of a phone box. The three of us were sharing one room, three single beds squeezed into a little box-room.
We all get into bed, & start swapping poker yarns, how could he call? sorta stuff.
I'm nodding off, & I am due to catch an early flight the next morning.
Ian was the "Team" Accountant, he kept score of all our swaps & stuff, & he'd been messing with pencil & paper for an hour or whatever.
I vaguely remember him telling me that he had done the maths, & the money I had given him amounted to 19.3% of his "action" in the Main Event. Jolly good. I think - not exactly sure - that Thewy had about 13%.
I fly home the next day & think no more about it, my job was a bit stressy & heavy, so I just got stuck in.
I get a phone-call from Thewy a few days later.
"Hey, Ian has made the Final".
He has?
Yeah
WOW!
There were no "Live Updates" or Final Table "streams" back then, so I had no way of knowing how he was getting on.
Eventually, I found a website called "Hendon Mob" who were doing a sort of Live Update, but it was NON-interactive, you could not Post anything, just read stuff.
I'll spare you the details, but Ian ended up 2nd, scooping €121,000. How much?!
It was, at the time, my biggest ever poker win, & I was not even there.....
Ian gave his job up, invested some of the money on the deposit for a beautiful cottage up in Wirksworth, Derby, oddly enough I had tried to buy the very same cottage 6 months earlier, but I could not afford it. Now I could, but Ian got there first, lol.
He became a Pro poker player, but bizarrely, he played cash, not Tourneys. He sucked at cash, but excelled at polker, & we half fell out over it, as I was insistent he should stick to Tourneys.
Then he did an ever dafter thing, he decided to play Omaha 5 nights a week at......The Vic. I mean, that was THE toughest cash game in the UK at the time.
It all went tiddly-poo of course, & Ian was not enjoying it, it actually depressed him, & he became poor company for a while. Eventually - & well before he had lost too much money - he went back to working, & he works for Derbyshire Council to this day.
I ended up sharing tables with him at DTD one night last year, I had not seen him for ages. Top, top, bloke.
You mentioned Big Dave Smith a few posts ago, too. Dave passed away recently, as you know.
We shared Finals galore, when I won the Spring Festival Main at Napoleon's Sheffield (2005 or thereabouts) he made the same Final, I flopped a set of eights & Dave could not get away from his pocket Kings, & I busted him.
He was a genuine "station" in those says, a pain to play against (& I mean that as a compliment) but at the time I felt his son, Kevin, was a far better player.
They ran a little building business at the time, & later, Dave was one of the first people to start selling "Mobility Scooters".
In his later years, Dave became a MUCH better player, (oddly, he became a better player after he adopted his trademark pork-pie hat, go figure THAT) ) & eventually was rewarded with winning the Brighton GUKPT, this would be, I dunno, around 2008. First prize was just over £100,000, & Dave hardly ever did "deals" at Final Tables as he was a tough negotiator, & used to get a bit shouty-wouty.
Anyway, he wins the lot, has the photos taken, presented with the comedy cheque, then trots off to the cash-desk to get paid out.
"Cheque OK Mr Smith?" says the girl.
"NO way, I want cash" says Dave.
So they paid him over £100,000 of cash, he stuck it in a Tesco carrier bag, & off he toddled, at 3 in the morning, to his car, which was parked in a side street two miles away. How he never got mugged I shall never know.
Happy days.
I just looked up that Master Classics Final Table that Ian Oldershaw casme second on.
Cashees included.....
Robin Keston. Still doing well to this day.
Micky Cook. His nick was "The Clock", rumour has it he used to be the guy that looked out for the cops during bank raids, hence he "clocked" people. Still around.
Robert Mizrachi
John Kabbaj, later to win a WSOP Bracelet.
C T "John" Law, still around now, finished 2nd in a WSOP a few years back, Newcastle lad.
Marcel Luske, 4th.
Devilfish, 3rd.
Johan Storakers, winner. He is still on the circuit to this day, & we later becme very good mates.
Another side-story to that Master Classics was that it gave me the idea that interactive Live Updates would be a good thing, & I was the first person to do them.
I employed Jen Mason & Adam "snoopy" Goulding to assist, which was how I came to be close pals with both of them. Sadly, Live Updates never made a penny, in fact they cost me an absolute bomb over many years. Good idea, that, Kendall. Not.
I'm done with my old man reminiscing, sorry.
Merry christmas all.